756 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Part III. 



Art, the height of the wall six or eight foot, ami .1 conical roof is placed on them, and covered with ttirf ; 

 but many incloMira "I this kind are formed without roofs. They are called in Selkirkshire stells, and 

 were brought iuto notice, in 1822. I>\ ( aptain, now Lord Napier, in his Treatise on Store Farming, a work 

 to which we shall have recount In a subsequent section. 



Chap. VI. 



Execution <f Improvements. 



4600. The mode in which improvements are executed is a point of very considerable im- 

 portance, and mav materially affect their success as well as their expense. We shall first 

 consider the different modes of execution, and next offer some general cautions to be kept 

 in view in undertaking extensive works. 



Skct. I. Different Modes of procuring the Execution of Improvements on Estates. 



4601. The necessary preliminary to the execution if an improvement, is a calculation of 

 the advantages to arise from it, and an estimate of the expense of carrying it into effect. 

 If the former, taken in their full extent, do not exceed the latter, the proposed alteration 

 cannot, in a private view, be considered as an improvement. The next point to be ascer- 

 tained is the practicability, under the given circumstances of a case, of executing the plan 

 under consideration. There are three things essential to the due execution of an im- 

 provement. 1st. an undertaker, or a person of skill, leisure, and activity, to direct the 

 undertaking; 2d, men and animals with which to prosecute the work ; 3d, money, or 

 other means of answering the required expenditure. A deficiency in any one of these 

 may, by frustrating a well-planned work after its commencement, be the cause not only 

 of its failure, but of time, money, and credit being lost. — Improvements may be exe- 

 cuted by the proprietor, either directly ; gradually, by economical arrangements ; or 

 remotely, to a certain extent, by moral and intellectual means. 



4602. To execute improvements directly, all that is necessary is to employ a stew aid 

 or manager of adequate abilities and integrity, and supply him with the requisite 

 plans, men, and money. This will generally be found the best mode of forming new- 

 roads, new plantations, opening new quarries or mineral pits, altering the course of 

 waters, and all such creations or alterations as are not included in the improvement 

 of farm lands. 



4603. To procure the gradual execution of improvements on farm lands, various arrange- 

 ments may be made with the tenants : for example, by granting long leases ; letting them 

 find the requisites of improvement, and take the advantages during their tenns ; by granting 

 shorter leases, with a covenant of remuneration for the remainder of such improvements 

 as they have made, at the time of quitting ; by granting leases, at a low rent, for the first 

 years of the term, to give the tenants time and ability to improve at their own expense; 

 by advancing money to tenants at will, or, which is the same, making allowances of rent 

 for specified improvements, to be executed by them under the inspection and control of 

 the manager, they paying interest for the money advanced or allowed ; by employing 

 workmen on tenanted farms ; the tenants in like manner paying interest on the money 

 expended. The usual interest, till lately, was six per cent. ; thus estimating the value 

 of the improvement at sixteen years' purchase. 



4604. The moral and intellectual means if improving firm lands consists, as Marshal 

 has observed, in enlightening the minds of tenants. Though this mode is but of slow 

 operation, and respects improvements in modes of culture, rather than such as require 

 great outlay ; yet it deserves notice in this place, as necessary to second the efforts of the 

 landlord. 



4605. Farmers, as moral and intellectual agents, mav be divided into reading men, and illiterate beings : 

 the first class derive hints for improvement from book's; but the second can only, if at all, derive benefit 

 from example, 



4<ii>ii. With respect to improving farmers by books, — agricultural newspapers, magazines, and county 

 surveys, are probably what would be read with most eagerness ; and as such works abound in statements 

 of what actually has takeii place in different situations, by farmers like themselves, perhaps they are the 

 most likely to stimulate to exertion. Historical relations of the agriculture of other countries are also 

 generally interesting to agriculturists; and though no great professional benefit is to be derived from 

 them, yet they tend to enlarge and liberalise the mind, and promote a taste for knowledge. Under these 

 circumstances, it may be worthy of consideration whether an agricultural library might not be established 

 in the steward's office, on very extensive estates, for the use of tenants and all other persons belonging to 

 the estate who chose to read from it Itinerating libraries for the use both of farmers and their servants, 

 or, indeed, of whoever chooses to use them, have for some time been established, and extensively used in 

 East Lothian, and they are gradually being adopted in other counties both in Scotland and England. 

 (Uartl. Mag. vol ii. p. ;>76.) 



4<;o7. The establishment of tefiools for the children of the lower class of tenants, and of cottagers of 

 every description, is an obvious and important source of moral and intellectual improvement ; and con- 

 sidering it as decided by experience and the most competent judges, that the education of the lower 

 classes will tend great I v to their amelioration and the benefit of society at large, we are of opinion that, 

 wherever they are not already established, they should be introduced. Working schools, somewhat in 

 the German manner, lioth for boys and girls, would also be a material improvement in such districts .is 

 are behind in a taste for cleanliness, fireside comforts, cookery, and dress. 



